I meant to post this yesterday but whatever. BLU, the artists behind the wallscape stop-motion videos MUTO and COMBO, have published a new short film that just lays its predecessors to waste. I usually watch these kinds of artsy vids halfway through and give up. A few seconds into this one, I went fullscreen and watched it while doing nothing else but drinking a beer and saying “wat” (rhymes with “cat”) a few times. There’s a truck, and a snow fence, and soccer balls, and they painted the whole front of a building blue!

BIG BAG BIG BOOM – the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

If you have been keeping up with Banksy, you know his art has recently been spotted around the US, and it has finally shown up in NYC. To be honest, thats all we really care about. Detroit? Where? Since Banksy is one of our favorite artists, we tend to follow his moves pretty close, so when his art started getting bombed around NYC, we took instant notice. Earlier in the week, we let you know that Poster Boy had just been sent to the slammer for his subway art, but his street team of followers have taken to repping their leader and letting Banksy know that this is New York, and its their turf. Its going to be interesting to see how this all plays out, but my bet is that this is just the start of something great and something that used to be the stapple of artist competition.

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The latest four new works put up in London by Banksy have caused a small controversy in the graffiti community. The well thought out piece, involving a man wallpapering up a wall of graffiti, just so happens to have been painted over 25 year old piece by London graffiti writer Robbo. With all the hype from these works you can imagine the surprise Robbo got when he saw his work being played with. Being not very happy about this, Robbo took to the work to defend his name. But instead of just doing a messy throw-up over Banksy’s piece, Robbo put some thought into his response to the anonymous artist.

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As promised we are bringing you part two of MTO’s adventure through Berlin. This time we give you a collection of famous movie characters throughout the city. I really enjoy the red outline he includes in his portraits, it really makes the image pop. My favorite might have to be Sidney Deane, from White Men Can’t Jump, but they are all pretty solid. The only one I’m having trouble with is the ninth one down, the guy with the big grey hair and glasses on. I’m sure once I get clued in it will click but I’m drawing a blank as of now. Big ups to MTO, as we support your tagging of Berlin, keep it going.


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A French artist that calls himself MTO has done graffiti portraits across the city of Berlin in Germany. Like most graffiti artists there is not much information about MTO. What we do know is his style is awesome as he spray paints realistic portraits of movie characters, musicians, and historical legends. In the first part to the MTO series we bring you musicians, enjoy.


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I’ve always been a fan of spray paint, more so of tasteful graffiti.   Spray paint seems to be the red headed stepchild of the art world even though it can create some amazing things.  Space painting is a specific style of spray paint art which is created in minutes if you know the techniques.  The outer space scenes which are created are truly out of this world…..lame joke.  Some of these scenes remind of some early 90′s t-shirts, the ones on the rack next to the shirt with gigantic animal scenes.

Check out what this guy created in just a minute.

The artists at spacepaintings.com are the best at it, check out their site for instruction or just to buy some art.

Ever since the graffiti art movement began there were meeting places for writers known as writer’s corners or writer’s benches, and the majority of these meeting places were in the subway system in New York City. The last active location was the 149th Street Grand Concourse subway station in The Bronx, on the 2 and 5 IRT lines. It was active from the 1970s until the decline of subway painting in the late 1980s.

Writers from all over the city congregated at a bench located at the back of the uptown platform and they came to meet, make plans, sign black books and settle disputes over whos art was the most prominent at the time. The main activity was watching art on the passing trains (known as benching) and the writers would admire and criticize the latest paintings that would roll by on the subway cars.

The 149th Street Grand Concourse subway station was an ideal location for a writer’s bench for several reasons. It was a station where the 2 and 5 lines converged. The 2 and 5 lines featured some of the most artistic works in the city because of the fact that many lay-ups and train yards for the 2s and 5s were located in both the Bronx and Brooklyn made creativity on these lines extremely competitive. This was prime real estate and artist made sure that they only bombed their best and latest works on these cars. Also an overpass connecting the uptown and downtown platforms was an ideal vantage point from which to view the passing trains. There is nothing like a front row seat to some of the best art in the city.

Since paintings rarely if ever run on trains today, this bench is no longer frequented by writers but old school New York writers occasionally visit the site for the sake of nostalgia. If you would like to read the full memorial plaque that was installed on the bench, check it out here.

Writers Bench from Miss Tint on Vimeo.

A while back we did a post on the artist Banksy, see here, but he is back in the news. If you never heard of Banksy before then prepare to get zooted. Banksy is an anonymous graffiti artist from England, and that’s all the information I can really give you about him, real informative I know. He has kept his identity a secret for years while tagging the streets of England as well as other parts of the world. It is said he got into street graffiti in the late 80′s during what was called in Bristol,  England, the “Aerosal Boom”. He is mainly recognized for work that combines graffiti writing with a distinctive stenciling technique. Banksy’s stencils feature striking and humorous images occasionally combined with slogans. The message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist or anti-establishment. Subjects include rats, monkeys, policemen, soldiers, children, and the elderly. The cool thing about Banksy is that he does not sell or make a profit off of any of his work. He gives full access to his stencils and art work on his website where you can download the files and use them at your own leisure.

Recently Banksy has cracked into the mainstream of art and has been given access to the famous Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery to showcase his work. The exhibit was opened in June which featured more than 100 works of art, including animatronics and installations; it is his largest exhibition yet, featuring 78 new works. In true fashion the exhibit is free to check out and since Banksy doesn’t believe in copyrighting, the public is free to take pictures and video of the showcased art. A lot of his art shown breaks out of the graffiti mold and displays his progressiveness of originality. He uses animatronics to bring life to animals, food, and people very successfully with subliminal messages. A rabbit in front of a mirror files her nails, fishsticks swimming in a fishbowl, a hot dog chilling out cooling off, and chicken nuggets are hatched and feed on dipping sauce. These pieces are thought-provoking and really amazing to see come to life.

Some of Banksy’s work carries a clear message while others intend to make you think. Banksy takes advantages of the absurdity and ironies of life and the human existence and lets the viewer draw their own conclusions. Spread throughout the gallery he includes messages that war hurts everyone, your mom loves you no matter what, and that we should all strive for peace and happiness. You can check out his website here.

Mike Giant is, well, a GIANT. He is a super influential graffiti artist turned clothing designer, who has made quite a name for himself using his medium of choice, the sharpie (he even has his own line of Sharpie markers. How cool is that?). He was born in Upstate New York, and soon moved to Albuquerque New Mexico, where he began his life as a graffiti artist. He got the name Giant from a friend, who said that when he fell off his skateboard, it sounded like a Giant hit the ground. After taking a job designing for Think Skateboards, Giant moved to San Francisco, where he teamed up with some fellow artists to form Rebel 8 Clothing. Giant is by far one of my favorite artists, so Ill let his art and personal bio do the rest of the talking.

“Birth. Upstate New York. Drawing. New Mexico. BMX bikes. Heavy Metal. Skateboarding. Punk rock. Hip-hop. Thailand. College. Dishwasher. Raves. Lorelei. First tattoo. San Francisco. Dharma. Think Skateboards. Angi. London. Adult bookstore. Computer animation. Tattooing. New York City. Newskool. Skullz Press. Everlasting. Track bikes. Brooke and Leia. Tokyo. Tattoo 13. Plum Village. Albuquerque. Stay Gold. REBEL8. Manifestations. Ordained minister. Megan. 36. Amsterdam. Right here. Right now.”